She's Come Undone

She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb

Dolores Price's ordinary world consists of eating a lot. When she's upset, she eats. When she's happy, she eats. Everything she does comes down to eating. She has reasons though. When she was younger her father left her mother, then her mother went insane forcing her to move in with her grandma. When Dolores was 13, and her mother was living with her and her grandma, she was raped by the man she trusted with everything. That's when she started eating. This is her ordinary world because this is the only thing in her life so far that has been completely comfortable and normal to her.

"...Ma had bought me a new product to try: Swiss cheese in a squirt can. ...Now I decorated crackers and chips with ribbons of the stuff. I found some stale Lorna Doones and concocted little Swiss cheese and Lorna Doone sandwiches. I squirted dabs on each fingertip, like nail polish, and licked them off one by one, repeating the process until the can hissed air." pg.126 par.10

Angry Trainer Fitness angrytrainerfitness.com. March 2012

Vanishing Acts

Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult

“You make yourself strong because it's expected of you. You become confident because someone beside you is unsure. You turn into the person others need you to be.” 

I believe that the character Andrew Hopkins in this story is a a shape shifter. This line perfectly describes him because when his daughter Delia was 4 years old, he kidnapped her. Andrew was divorced to his wife Elise but Elise had full custody of Delia. Elise was an alcoholic however and Andrew couldn't think of any other way to get his daughter out of that environment than to just take her an leave. So he left Arizona and drove to New Hampshire where he completely changed both of their identities and lived a full life with this secret. Until 28 years later when the police find him, he is sent back to Arizona to face trial and both Delia and Andrew have to come back to who they're true identities were. Not only did Andrew change his personal information, he also had to change his personality, for both his, and his daughter's safety in their new lives.